Stability problems on i7

I'm building a new machine for someone at the moment with the following spec:

Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard with 750W PSU
Intel Core i7 Extreme 975 3.33 GHz
6GB DDR3-1200 RAM
150GB WD VelociRaptor SATA disk
NVIDIA 9500GT graphics (it's not being used for gaming)
Windows XP Pro x64

However it's been intermittently unstable when starting from cold. I've had 3 BSOD's, all 0x0000000a errors, all of which occurred while the machine was sitting idle at the desktop. The first and third were in nv4_mini.sys, the second in rdbss.sys. I tested the RAM and it came back ok. The things I'm not sure about are since it's such a new processor (is the 975 even out yet?) and whether the graphics card is either faulty or not compatible with the i7 architecture (unlikely but not impossible). Any ideas?

Spear

Karsini wrote: »

I'm building a new machine for someone at the moment with the following spec:

Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard with 750W PSU
Intel Core i7 Extreme 975 3.33 GHz
6GB DDR3-1200 RAM
150GB WD VelociRaptor SATA disk
NVIDIA 9500GT graphics (it's not being used for gaming)
Windows XP Pro x64

However it's been intermittently unstable when starting from cold. I've had 3 BSOD's, all 0x0000000a errors, all of which occurred while the machine was sitting idle at the desktop. The first and third were in nv4_mini.sys, the second in rdbss.sys. I tested the RAM and it came back ok. The things I'm not sure about are since it's such a new processor (is the 975 even out yet?) and whether the graphics card is either faulty or not compatible with the i7 architecture (unlikely but not impossible). Any ideas?

What heatsink are you using? Is it the Intel OEM one? Is it on low speed? What are the temps like?

Solitaire

Don't you mean i7-965?

What PSU do you have? Details please!

Also are you monitoring temps? If not, do so. And that CPU runs horribly hot on the stock HSF, think about upgrading that (ASAP if you're even thinking about OCing it!)

Off the top of my head it sounds like bad/corrupt/incompatible graphics drivers. Bear in mind that you need the newest (not neccessarily fastest) graphics card available for i7 as older nVidia drivers have issues with i7 (instability and inexplicable performance drops) and coincidentally newer nVidia drivers have issues with older nVidia GPUs (they're fiends for crappy back-compatibility ) Try uninstalling, deleting and DriverSweeper-ing then using the very latest ForceWare release and see if that improves things. Hopefully you won't have to go out and slap in a 9500GT or newer but you never know :rolleyes:

Aside from that XP64 is a right [CENSORED] anyways. Why not Win7 or at least Vista 64?

Solitaire

Solitaire wrote: »

Don't you mean i7-965?

What PSU do you have? Details please!

Also are you monitoring temps? If not, do so. And that CPU runs horribly hot on the stock HSF, think about upgrading that (ASAP if you're even thinking about OCing it!)

Off the top of my head it sounds like bad/corrupt/incompatible graphics drivers. Bear in mind that you need the newest (not neccessarily fastest) graphics card available for i7 as older nVidia drivers have issues with i7 (instability and inexplicable performance drops) and coincidentally newer nVidia drivers have issues with older nVidia GPUs (they're fiends for crappy back-compatibility ) Try uninstalling, deleting and DriverSweeper-ing then using the very latest ForceWare release and see if that improves things. Hopefully you won't have to go out and slap in a 9500GT or newer but you never know :rolleyes:

Aside from that XP64 is a right [CENSORED] anyways. Why not Win7 or at least Vista 64?

No, it's really a 975. I don't think it has even been released yet but I did manage to get hold of one from a wholesaler. It's not for me and they requested XP x64 so that's what I used. The PSU isn't necessarily one I'd rate highly, it's a 750W "Jersey" unit. I also updated the BIOS because I got an error due to an unsupported CPU, the BIOS update cleared that one at least.

I'm not sure it's a driver issue because the first time it happened the machine failed to POST for a few minutes afterwards. I think the fan is running on the lower speed but can't check the temps until tomorrow morning. On first glance they didn't seem too high however. But yes it is the stock heatsink/fan. I won't be overclocking it myself but I don't know about the end user. I'll try to give more information in the morning but right now I'm not at the machine so can't.

Spear

Karsini wrote: »

No, it's really a 975. I don't think it has even been released yet but I did manage to get hold of one from a wholesaler. It's not for me and they requested XP x64 so that's what I used. The PSU isn't necessarily one I'd rate highly, it's a 750W "Jersey" unit. I also updated the BIOS because I got an error due to an unsupported CPU, the BIOS update cleared that one at least.

I'm not sure it's a driver issue because the first time it happened the machine failed to POST for a few minutes afterwards. I think the fan is running on the lower speed but can't check the temps until tomorrow morning. On first glance they didn't seem too high however. But yes it is the stock heatsink/fan. I won't be overclocking it myself but I don't know about the end user. I'll try to give more information in the morning but right now I'm not at the machine so can't.

There's a switch on the side of the fan to switch it high speed. The increase in noise should make this obvious when it's done.

Solitaire

Wow. A "750W" PSU that alleges similar performance to my old 500W FSP and may well blow up if you tried running it at that rated output really doesn't inspire confidence.

And why the hell did I read "9500GT" as "8500GT" above? Overtired...

Solitaire

Solitaire wrote: »

Wow. A "750W" PSU that alleges similar performance to my old 500W FSP and may well blow up if you tried running it at that rated output really doesn't inspire confidence.

And why the hell did I read "9500GT" as "8500GT" above? Overtired...

I wouldn't be surprised if it's the PSU. I didn't choose the bits.

Solitaire

It might be okay, or mediocre, or plain awful. No-one's even heard of Jersey before so its impossible to tell unless you bust it open to see who's responsible for its PCB and design (and that voids the warranty) All I know of is that Cemos seems to be the supplier. They may distribute €500+ Origen cases but the few user reviews for all the PSUs they distribute seem to be complete [CENSORED]

Ok I'm back. Here's the temperatures reported by the BIOS; they sound fine to me:

CPU: 35°C
Motherboard: 22°C
Northbridge: 38°C
Southbridge: 38°C

Since I was getting issues related to the graphics I've tried exchanging the 9500GT for a 9600GT (the only one available to me) in order to rule out a fault with the particular card I have.

cherryghost

Karsini wrote: »

I'm building a new machine for someone at the moment with the following spec:

Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard with 750W PSU
Intel Core i7 Extreme 975 3.33 GHz
6GB DDR3-1200 RAM
150GB WD VelociRaptor SATA disk
NVIDIA 9500GT graphics (it's not being used for gaming)
Windows XP Pro x64

However it's been intermittently unstable when starting from cold. I've had 3 BSOD's, all 0x0000000a errors, all of which occurred while the machine was sitting idle at the desktop. The first and third were in nv4_mini.sys, the second in rdbss.sys. I tested the RAM and it came back ok. The things I'm not sure about are since it's such a new processor (is the 975 even out yet?) and whether the graphics card is either faulty or not compatible with the i7 architecture (unlikely but not impossible). Any ideas?

Get rid of xp pro x64. its a travisty. I was getting the exact same bsods on that OS, all i done was install vista x64, no problems now

cherryghost

cherryghost wrote: »

Get rid of xp pro x64. its a travisty. I was getting the exact same bsods on that OS, all i done was install vista x64, no problems now

Unfortunately I have no say in the matter, that's what they asked for.

MunsterCycling

Is there a chipset driver for that motherboard for xp 64bit?

Yeah it came on the motherboard's disc, I've no unknown devices in Device Manager and they're all WHQL certified. I got another BSOD with the 9600GT so I know it's not a faulty video card. I asked someone higher up to get me an Antec PSU so I'll give that a go when it arrives.

If it were my own machine I'd certainly try different operating systems but unfortunately I can't.

Solitaire

Can't you throw Windows 7 RC 64 onto a temporary partition and see if you can force a crash? At least it would tell you if the problem was hardware or driver/OS... besides, if Windows gives you a Fake Driver or borked driver it'll still come up WHQL and then go and crash the rig - had that with network and wireless drivers before (WHQL approved and auto-downloaded behind my back then promptly crash the comp with buffer overruns :rolleyes: )

Also, did you test that RAM properly (i.e. with a MemTest run from boot, not in Windows or Microsoft's memory test)? Try underclocking those RAM modules (i.e. 1333MHz) and see if crashes still occur.

Shame you don't have a current ATI card to throw in there... rule out ForceWare once and for all. Did you DriverSweeper before testing with the 9600GT? Might still be a bad driver install, you never know... But did you also check all power and cable connections were in place and nice and tight in there?

If you can then test that Raptor in another rig and check its SMART credentials with SpeedFan to see if it came bent from the box.

I tested the RAM with MemTest86. I also checked the SMART data on the Raptor, it's all good, no reallocated or pending sectors and nothing else dodgy. However I clocked the RAM back to 1333 and in the short time I was using it, it seemed to be stable, before that I got a BSOD when running Prime95 for roughly one minute. Hopefully I can get it all working tomorrow.